Little egrets are a small member of the heron family standing at 22 to 26 inches tall. They have a wingspan of 35 to 42 inches and weigh 12 to 19 ounces. Aside from their black legs, bright yellow feet and pointed black beak, they are white over their entire bodies. In the breeding season little egrets develop long feather plumes from the back of their heads and decorative feathers on their wings.
They feed mostly in shallow water, where they ambush and then swallow whole, small invertebrates and fish. Sometimes they can be seen using their bright yellow feet to disturb the sediment or aquatic weeds and then grabbing any creatures that try to swim away. They will also occasionally eat small mammals, amphibians and even birds if they are quick enough to catch them.
Little egrets usually start breeding at 2 years of age when a pair will form from march onwards and begin to construct a twig platform nest. This is usually in close proximity to other egrets, grey herons and sometimes even great cormorants. The nest can be in a tree, bush, reedbed and where the birds live coastally, they will also nest on cliff edges. One the nest is complete the female will lay greenish blue eggs every 1 or 2 days until a clutch of 3 to 5 is formed. The eggs measure 4 and a half centimetres long and are incubated by both parents from when the first is laid. Incubation takes just over 3 weeks and when the chicks hatch, also at 1 to 2 day intervals they are covered in white down. Both parents bring a supply of food which they swallow and then regurgitate for the chicks who are ready to fledge at 40 to 45 days old. The young birds will stay close to their parents for several more weeks whilst they learn to feed themselves after which they may disperse from the breeding territory. Each pair will only nest once per year and if they are successful, will usually remain monogamous for multiple seasons.
For most of their range, little egrets don’t migrate but in some places, particularly in mainland Europe, they will head south for the colder months, sometimes going as far as Africa or southern Asia. In other places where they are resident, egrets will move away from their nesting colony to spend the winter in places where they are more protected from weather extremes and where food might be easier to find.
In the UK Little egrets aren’t the only white member of the heron family, you may also see Great white egrets that are much larger, almost the size of a grey heron with longer necks and yellow beaks and over recent years the country has also been colonised by Cattle egrets which have yellow beaks, lighter coloured legs and in the breeding season have yellow feathers on their heads and backs.
There are currently an estimated 1100 pairs of little egrets in the country with more than 12,000 overwintering here. Their numbers are still rising, and they continue to spread across Scotland and northern Ireland. They have an average lifespan of 5 years but the oldest known bird survived for 14 years 2 months and 3 days after being ringed as a chick.
Special thanks to Graham from @NaturallyCuriousUK and @ScoopoftheDay for allowing me to use some of their footage for this video.
Some of the other footage and images used in this video was obtained through creative commons licences. The originals and their licence details can be found at:
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2 июл 2024
